dissecting the games

I mentioned here that I was going to be rereading The Hunger Games with Busy Bee Lauren.  I've actually even tweeted....twice I think.  I thought about writing as I went along here, but wasn't making any promises.  I'll try though....it's mostly going to be a lot of comparison to the movie, but also just trying to recapture that feeling from the first time I read it.  It's been long enough since the last read that everything starts to feel a little new again....if you haven't read the books (first of all, you're nuts - go out and get thee to a library please) then you should skip over these posts for I'll be holding nothing back.

There's so much information in chapters one and two that never really made it to the big screen.  Already at the end of chapter two we know these things:

• Katniss loves Prim fiercely
• She pretty much despises her mother
• Her mother came from 'wealth'
• And is pretty much useless 
• Katniss is hard, bitter & older than her years
• We know what tesserae is (and it's not a tile)
• Katniss's father died in the mines
• There was a revolution
• District 13 existed and was obliterated
• The Capitol sucks
• Gale is important
• Gale is more vocally passionate about his hatred for the Capitol
• Peeta basically saved Katniss & her family's life
• Peeta's mom is an asshole
• Peeta loves Katniss

That's really a lot of info for 33 pages.  And think of how much of that wasn't really in the movie.  Big stuff too like District 13.  I guess that it will be talked about in the next movie??  I mean, you can't leave them out, right?  But really, they were a big part of the first revolution so you'd think they'd get a mention.  Did they even really explain the reason for the Hunger Games in the movie?  I don't even remember.

Little things, like Haymitch groping Effie and falling off the stage.  It's small, but it was part of a portrait.  Katniss doesn't find the mockingjay pin at The Hob.  She sells strawberries to Madge.  Little things....

It doesn't matter how many times I read it I am still hopeful that another name gets pulled out of that glass ball.  How silly is that?  Rereading just reminds me of what a talented writer Suzanne Collins is. There are so many things I love so quickly.  The crowd going silent while Effie is trying to illicit applause for Katniss's volunteering.  The three fingered salute that begins the revolution though no one really knows it at the time.  Peeta taking a blow to the head to feed Katniss.  Despite her grudge against her mother, the hopeful little girl in her comes out for a moment when she sees the dress her mother has laid out for her for The Reaping.

I want so badly to love Katniss, but it's hard.  I respect her.  She's smart, resourceful, tough and honest, but she is not loveable.  And I guess that's the way it should be.  Not that there weren't moments that I didn't get glimpses of the person underneath all that hardness.  I did, but in the book so far we haven't gotten there yet.